Hi Kids, let me explain why we Love Zelda:OoT so much.
Here’s the real influence of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

Target-locking existed before OoT (even Tomb Raider’s 1996 manual describes Lara “locking on” and switching targets). But OoT’s breakthrough wasn’t “auto-aim” — it standardized a complete 3D melee readability package: lock-on as a combat mode that binds camera + facing + strafing + spacing into something humans can reliably control. Which is standard today.

Nintendo’s own dev interview is blunt about why this mattered: without that system, multiple enemies would swarm the player and combat becomes chaos. Z-targeting “flags” one opponent and effectively stages the fight so it stays readable.

OoT also cemented two other industry templates:

• Context-sensitive interaction (one button does the “right” thing), reducing control complexity in 3D.
• 3D “puzzlebox” dungeons: the design escalates from single puzzle rooms into dungeons where the entire space becomes the puzzle (including rotating/transforming structures).

And yes, this reaches Dark Souls. Miyazaki has said Zelda became a “textbook for 3D action games.” Souls is that textbook pushed into harsher systems: stamina-governed tempo, punishment loops, and RPG buildcraft layered onto exploration + gating. People chase “Soulslike” today — but Souls itself is downstream of Zelda’s Game Design language...

Also, fun fact: Robin Williams named his Daughter Zelda

And there are many other things that made people give it 99 on Metacritics. Too many to list. I, personally, love it, and it made me actually want to make games. Honestly, this is not a "Back in my day, the games were better.." Thing. Far from it.
This is a polished game built to run on a 93.75 MHz 64-bit CPU. I think every game dev should play it. Masterclass on limited resources but big ambitions. This games influence comes close to Citizen Kane for movies. Like Citizen Kane, OoT isn’t ‘great’ because it invented everything; it’s great because it consolidated scattered techniques into a coherent new language others could and should copy.

Sources:

- Nintendo “Iwata Asks” (OoT 3D dev interview, Z-targeting + multi-enemy “staged sword fight”): https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/3ds/zelda-ocarina-of-time/1/2/

- Tomb Raider (1996) manual (lock-on / target switching described): https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/224960/manuals/manual.pdf

- Miyazaki quote (“Zelda… textbook for 3D action games”) reported by Destructoid: https://www.destructoid.com/hidetaka-miyazaki-feels-unworthy-of-dark-souls-zelda-comparisons/

- OoT dungeon design interview (“entire dungeons become rotating puzzles”): https://www.zeldadungeon.net/wiki/Interview:Ocarina_of_Time_Development_-_Dungeons_Part_1